Chivas USA midfielder Eric Avila’s pro career has taken him to serve memorable stints in both the Lone Star State and north of the border in Toronto. The 2013 campaign served as the 25-year-old’s first Major League Soccer season back in his native Southern California.

At his young age, Avila has already recorded six years of league experience under his belt, and upon arriving to the Rojiblancos via trade in the off-season, the San Diego and UC Santa Barbara product expressed how thrilled he was to be coming home.

In the 2013 season, Avila established himself from the beginning as one of the club’s most dangerous playmakers and recorded 24 starts in 28 appearances while logging 2,183 minutes, all career highs. Avila’s three goals also established a new career mark and solidified him as a key piece of the nucleus heading into the 2014 season.

“It’s always nice to be back with friends and family,” Avila said. “It felt good to be back. It just felt really comfortable in the warm weather and stuff. It’s always important to get a role in the team as quick as possible. Luckily coaches helped guide me to the right [wing position] and give me the confidence to keep going. I continued to work hard to always try and impress the coaches.”

Perhaps what impressed coaches the most was Avila’s poise and disposition to work hard in every opportunity in practice, scrimmages and league competition. Avila displayed a high level of competitiveness and drive during his first season with the Rebaño Angelino and the midfielder began to gain the confidence to take on more of a leadership role, if not become someone on the team that could lend helpful advice to the less MLS savvy members of the team.

“As the season went on and how the things were going I kind of asserted myself more by trying to help out the people who didn’t have as much experience within the league,” Avila mentioned. “Obviously the league is getting better and better every year and it’s obviously getting harder and harder. Mainly for some of the new guys who had not experienced MLS, I just tried to give them a little helpful insight.

As one of the club’s attacking elements, Avila played a key role in helping teammates such as striker Erick Torres and left winger Bryan de la Fuente become acclimated to the style of MLS play and help the pair develop their game.

“As soon as they came in I told them that it wasn’t going to be easy, [defenders] are going to be right on you, so the ball has to move quickly. They were willing to adjust quick and I wanted to help them out.”

In a season where Chivas could not secure one of the top spots in the highly-competitive Western Conference, Avila says that one of the positives he takes away from the 2013 season is the camaraderie that was shared in the locker room. Despite the rocky results, the Goats remained unified and continued to have a workman’s-like approach day after day.

Personally for the SoCal product, he says he is grateful for the opportunity to have gotten extensive playing time and remains driven to continue to build on that ahead of next season.

Along with a core group of returners, Avila expressed that the club could be strengthened with the addition of a bit more veteran and league savvy presence to get them to next level. As someone who has been a part of MLS Cup while with FC Dallas, Avila knows the value and importance of mixing young talented players together with experienced contributors to build a winner and be able to push through the demands of the 34-game season.

“In the beginning of the year we just had a brand new team, a whole new team that didn’t know much about the league. I think we need some experienced players who know the league a little bit or have been used to it. We need those types of players that can carry us on. We have leaders, but we just need a little bit more,” Avila concluded.